Spotlight on Sundar Kand

[Guest guest]

Today at the Mandir we will be singing the Sundar Kand ! Sundar means

'Beautiful' and Kand means 'chapter' or 'portion'. So the Sundar Kand

is the beautiful chapter or portion of Ramayana.

Hanuman is the embodiment of pure devotion. Swamiji says in cover of

the Hanuman puja book .."Whoever worships Hanuman ...will become

filled with devotion and the joy of pure, unselfish service" The

Sundar Kand is the story of Hanuman crossing the ocean to find Sita.

He also has a little fun at Ravana's expense - a very entertaining

episode.

Some of us will be at the Mandir, singing along with Swamiji. Please

note "singing" is the operative word here, not "chanting". The Sundar

Kand has a rhythm all its own, and to make it even more interesting

Swamiji adds samputs to certain verses. Some of the Samputs are "Om

Namah Shivaya" or "jaya jagadisha hare" after each verse (complete

list given on page 150 of the book). Since the entire singing can go

on for more than 2 hours (non-stop), these samputs keep the pace

interesting ... so that even if we are not able to sing the core

song, we can atleast joyfully chime along with the samputs.

I hope that we will all take some time to sing or read the English

translation of the verses. Can you share which verses are meaningful

to you?

For me, I like the words of wisdom woven into the actual story. For

example (page 142) - Lord Rama says "Humility before a fool, love

before the cunning, generous instruction before a miser;words of

wisdom before a man bound by attachment, describing non-attachment

before the greedy, talk of peace before an angry person, and the word

of God before one filled with desire, are as inappropriate as sowing

seeds in barren land - without fruit"

Hope that you will share the verses that are meaningful to you.

JAI BAJRANG BALI KI !Nanda